Why Al Sharpton is the Man Millions Love to Hate

The only thing really remarkable about the warning from the FBI to Al Sharpton that an unnamed, and unspecified dangerous substance may have been mailed to his National Action Network office in New York was that it came from the FBI. For months Sharpton has bitterly complained that he had been receiving a steady stream of hate mail, and death threats, and had repeatedly told law enforcement and the FBI about the threats. He questioned just how seriously they took them. This time the FBI apparently took the substance threat serious enough to warn him.

That Sharpton should be under attack is hardly a surprise. If it's a police shooting, a protest over housing discrimination, a Jena six march, the charge to Dump Don Imus, a fist shake at the Bush administration, the bet is that Sharpton will be in the thick of the action. When Sharpton toppled Jesse Jackson from the top spot as black America's main man, the notoriety, and the hostility, that that title carries with it, insured that he'd take the heat for whatever went right or wrong when blacks took to the streets in protest. Sharpton's ubiquitous visibility on the protest front and willingness to go virtually anywhere as the visible, face and voice of angry black America makes him a universal punching bag.

But that doesn't totally explain the deep, and almost clinical loathing that the mere mention of Sharpton's name stirs among far too many whites, and a fair number of blacks. There are two bigger reasons for the hatred-fascination for Sharpton. He shakes, rattles, and ignites the goblin of racial denial in many whites. Sharpton is a breathing, walking, reminder that race still matters, and matters a lot in America. He is a slap in the face to the legions that duck, dodge, deflect, and flat out deny that there's still a lot of racial hurt inflicted on blacks. Sharpton shatters their comforting delusion that racial hate is a dusty antique thing of a bygone past, a figment of the overwrought, paranoid imagination of many blacks, or better still that blacks themselves with their alleged incessant penchant for playing the race card are the only bigots left in America.

The flap over Imus or Dog the Bounty Hunter was a textbook example of that. The instant they copped to their racial sins, the predictable happened. Legions of whites unleashed a torrent of self-righteous, angry, and near paranoid rants on internet chat rooms, on the comment section of news blogs, and in emails to this writer, hysterically defending Imus and Dog. They cussed Sharpton, always Sharpton, even though he had nothing to do with Dog or Imus opening their traps and blurting out their racist digs.

Sharpton got the by now familiar taunts--race baiter, hustler, clown, buffoon, and racial pimp. For an instant one would have thought that Sharpton had called whites the C word, and the Duke Lacrosse players accused of rape, nappy headed honkies.

But then again if there wasn't a Sharpton, he'd have to be invented, or someone such as him. That's because blacks are eternally straight-jacketed with the tiresome monolith of race burden. Think how ludicrous it sounds to say the white leader, the Latino leader, the Asian Leader. But that's not the case with blacks, whites demand a one-size-fits-all black leader; the "black leader." There's a method to this absurdity.

When the mantle of black leadership is wrapped tightly around one man, the presumption is that he or she speaks for all blacks. Jackson, pre-Sharpton's muscling him off the top perch, was the whipping boy. In the 1980s when he talked about forming the Rainbow Coalition, blacks were attacked as radicals.

When he talked about building an independent black political organization, blacks were attacked as separatists. When he talked about boycotting corporations and baseball leagues that racially discriminate in hiring and promotion, blacks were attacked as disruptive. When he called New York "hymietown," blacks were attacked as anti-Semitic. When he talked about leading a national crusade to save affirmative action, blacks were attacked as wanting quotas and special preferences for the unqualified.

It's the same with Sharpton. While he took much heat for the Tawana Brawley rape controversy, the burning down of a Jewish-owned store in Harlem after picketing that he endorsed, and his then penchant for shoot-from-the-lip inflammatory statements, so did blacks. They were forced to publicly defend him from the attacks while privately grousing that he made them look like idiots. Like clockwork, even though the Brawley case happened nearly two decades ago, whenever there's a Sharpton sighting on an issue it's instantly thrown up in his face.

When the FBI notified him of the dangerous substance threat, Sharpton quickly sent out an alert to his regional offices. Whether the dangerous substance threat was real, or more likely a crank, it won't change one thing. Sharpton will continue to be the man that millions love to hate.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press)
hutchinsonreport@aol.

Comments

[AlButerol]

Sorry, I misread the article when I accused the author of misquoting Sharpton about "hymietown". I hope the HuffPo censors remove that before it gets permanently posted.

[AlButerol]

Sharpton was never accused of using the term "hymietown". That was Jesse Jackson. You should check your facts. It only took a few minutes of googling to verify this.

[MsLiz]

Hey Earl, please note all the white people who read what you have to say. We want to know what you think. Please don't assume we all think the same things. Lots of us care and have been practicing what we preach.

[pfc1369]

Obviously, the fact that Sharpton is a lying, hypocritical opportunist has nothing to do with it.
It's just that he scares white folks, see.

[dora rice]

Al Sharpton is for the Blacks , what Bush is for the Republicans. He does the dirty work for them, but hurts them in the end.

[WorkingClass]

This white boy has no problem with Sharpton. But I have a major problem with Lieberman and by extension Obama and all the rest of Lieberman"s supporters. Lieberman wants world war three and I do not.

[Nommo]

Note how easily the name of a Black man and hate are so easily juxtaposed. It does not matter the man, so long as he is Black, most posters have no difficulty applying to most pejorative terms to him.

By contrast, no matter the crime of the caucasian, treason, perjury, it matters not, you never see such terms in reference to their being. But, of course, racism is no longer the way of things around here, yes?

[Janco54]

My only problem with Al Sharpton was the way the Tawana Brawley case was handled. I find it ironic that he screams for apologies and explanations from the likes of Imus but won't issue one himself for the incredible wrong done to those accused (wrongly) in that case.
It just makes him a hypocrite.

[Ravenlea]

I think you're probably pretty much right about this. Al Sharpton is one of those complex people who's hard to put in a box, which may also be why people have such a hard time with him. I didn't have much use for him back in the Tawana Brawley days. I didn't trust him. He seems to have matured over the years and deepened in some ways. He's got a wonderfully quick wit in a discussion/debate which may be why some other people don't like him much. And as you said, he's kind of in-your-face, which makes my white self uncomfortable with both societal racism and the shreds of my own racism that are there inspite of who I like to think I am (if that makes any sense). Some days I think he's ok. Somedays he takes me back to his Tawana Brawley days. In the end, it's good to have him out there with all his anger and passion, even if it's also sometimes annoying.

[Overd0g]

He's not hated because he's black. He's hated because he's a scum bag.

[researcher]

If we were all the same color and had the same beliefs what would be the challenge in that?

If the world were perfect what would the world look like?

Take a close look the world is perfectly imperfect.

The world is like one big lapidary machine polishing our souls.

[Chuckbutcher]

I'm trying to sort this out, if I (white guy) don't like some of Al's behaviors and call him on it I become a racist attacking all blacks? The Brawley thing and shop burning have no place in evaluating his tactics and judgement? How's that work?

I have never thought of using much less used language as inflammatory regarding another race as Al does so I'm somehow disqualified from criticizing its use by someone not of my race? I find it counter productive to use, it is not persuasive, it is simply - inflammatory. I don't consider Al Sharpton to be more than Al Sharpton speaking for and acting for Al Sharpton. Maybe that's the problem with "lumping."

[provgrays]

Sharpton is a race hustler who uses a thin film of borrowed Civil Rights Era credibility as a wind sock for the nearest live microphone.

[ChristinDemocrat]

I love Al Sharpton. When Bush was at his worse he called him out. Al has never been scared he has proven he is a real man.

Al is out to do what is right no matter the cost. Al Sharpton does on thing kick ass. I wish I had the chance to do half as much as he has done in his life.

My hat is off to a real man among men,

Al Sharpton I love you sir and hope to be your support in the future.

[lentinelia]

Sharpton had the temerity to question Obama's anti-war credentials. In March Sharpton said, "Senator Obama and I agree that the war is wrong, but then I want to know why he went to Connecticut and helped Lieberman, the biggest supporter of the war...."

The vilification Sharpton got from the "liberal" media was telling. The posts on this website were something I have not seen before aimed at a friend of Black people by people who are allegedly "liberal".

I would like to know how Obama can justify his support of Lieberman. Sharpton is the only public figure I know of to raise this issue.